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Sunday, November 20, 2016

Sleeping at 35 degrees........

I knew it would happen. It would get cold eventually. and the fact that there is no heat in the camper really thrilled me.

Thrilled me.......

I had already experienced the cold of 40 degrees and froze. My feet were so cold. In the ensuing nights, I piled on the quilts. The wool socks. The long sweat pants and hoodie I wear to bed.

Let me digress a bit here, and tell you as story about one of my neighbors. Not the crazy lady, but another, saner one, if you will. It will illustrate what happened to me last night and help you understand what happened to all of us. And believe me, the people who didn't flood just don't understand.

So the water is coming up. It is just the two of them, and they realized they need to go. When the water gets to their knees they start looking for the National Guard. Like us, they could not call anyone because the had AT&T as their phone service.

The National Guard never comes, but the Cajun Navy folks start pouring in the area about 2 pm. they get into one of the boats and are brought to a staging area. Busses take them to another staging area. then they end up at one of the hotels near the airport. Which is way on the other side of town, way out.

So they sleep. Fitfully, in shock. like the rest of us.

On the third day, they go to the front desk of this hotel and ask to pay for a few more days so they can contact family, friends, a place to live, somewhere to start recovering their life from the water.

No.....They have to leave immediately since the FEMA workers are taking the rooms. They are actually moving the refugees out to bring FEMA workers in. So they leave.

They are sitting in a coffee shop, she is crying softly like we all were. He says, wait, we own a damn RV.

When he told me this story, he said they were in such shock, it took them 3 days to realize they owned an RV. They are now one of the campers on our street with us.

Ok, back to me. I had to freeze for three days and face a weekend of freezing temps. Frank says........casually, I would say.........I can go get the sleeping bags from the storage building, if you like.

WHAT????

I was so warm last night. Wrapped up in my -5 degree sleeping bag in that cold camper bed with the freezing drafts pouring from the windows and permeating up from the un-insulated floor.

6 comments:

oh my dear.... you are helping us all understand how fragile our prosperity is - you did everything right - yes you did - and yet here you are - albeit temporarily. It is a sobering thing how 'bad times' can happen to anyone. You are strong, and you will recover your life one day, and be stronger for it. You will have such compassion and such a giving spirit, and you will lead us all in reaching out. I just know it.

Kicking out the people you are here to supposedly help - yup, that's our government at its finest. You gotta get in that house soon. Even sleeping bags get old fast. Is there a hotel or motel you can stay at? A lot of hotels take pets. Even a roach motel would have heat and maybe even a stove!

I don't understand how the camper doesn't have heat. Well, I suppose it's possible, but why? I think Frank was like the couple who didn't remember about their camper for three days. He just didn't think about the sleeping bags. Let's go with that and forgive him.

On a different note: loved, loved, loved the show! I know it's not your priority right now, and I really wish we could have gotten together for a moment, but really the show was amazing. Just remember the little lemon quilt. You've gotten quite a few lemons recently (maybe limes) but talk about lemonade--you're doing so much better than most of us would be. And you're getting closer...you sounded good on the phone. I'm so glad that we at least got to chat. Another time and we'll have lunch!

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